'She Helps Me All the Time' : Underestimating Women's Economic Engagement in Rural Honduras

Muller, Miriam ; Sousa, Liliana D.

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: LABOR MARKET;    ECONOMIC ENGAGEMENT;    GENDER;    FEMALE LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION;    SURVEY DESIGN;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-9217
RP-ID  :  WPS9217

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This study aims to understandwomen's engagement in economic activities in ruralHonduras and why these activities may not be accuratelyreflected in official statistics. The study finds that womenunderreport their engagement in economic activities,including production for own consumption, production ofmarket goods, and remunerated services and commerce.Simulations suggest that the rural female labor forceparticipation rate in Honduras is likely to beunderestimated by 6 to 23 percentage points. Two mainexplanations are found. First, women identify themselves(and are identified) primarily as housewives, and theconcepts of housework and employment are taken as mutuallyexclusive. Second, given this duality between housework andemployment, women define "employment" based on aset of necessary characteristics that exclude many of theirown activities. Specifically, work needs to (i) be conductedphysically outside the home; (ii) be in exchange for money;and (iii) entail sufficient time commitment. Importantly,these conditions are not binding constraints for men toidentify their own activities as economic activity. Theseresults have implications for understanding the low laborforce participation of women in rural communities incountries beyond Honduras, suggesting that low rates obscurea significant amount of economic activity in many countries.